One of the world’s biggest blockchain gaming companies, Animoca Brands, has halted its provision of services to Russian users following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The move is exceptional in the crypto world, as most large blockchain companies have taken a position to continue to serve clients in Russia.
Animoca Brands was founded in 2014 and is based in Hong Kong. In the first nine months of 2021, the company raised $529.6 million and was said to be holding over $600 million in digital assets. Its subsidiaries include ‘The Sandbox’, ‘Blowfish Studios’, ‘Quidd’, ‘GAMEE’, ‘nWay’, ‘Pixowl‘, and ‘Lympo. Plus‘. The company has also invested in numerous NFT projects, such as ‘Axie Infinity’, ‘OpenSea’, ‘Dapper Labs’, ‘Bitski’, ‘Harmony’, ‘Alien Worlds‘, and ‘Star Atlas.
Chairman of Animoca Brands, Yat Siu, underlined that the decision would affect some of the company’s subsidiaries, such as Gamee and Lympo. However, it shouldn’t impact the company at large.
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Gamee shared on Twitter that it had shut its services in Russia, while Lympo announced the cessation of Russian athlete NFT production, and the closure of negotiations with the country’s athletes, according to Bloomberg.
“The legal advice we’ve been receiving is we now have to impose some restrictions. It’s a sanctioned country on par with North Korea. The moment we end up doing business in those areas, we might ourselves become financially excluded from the financial system,”
Siu stated.
Sanctions on Russia are being imposed with the intention of isolating the nation, which may serve to cripple the country’s economy and aid Ukraine in the war.
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On the Flipside
- Some crypto users have disagreed with the firm positions, claiming that cryptocurrency businesses are decentralized and should therefore be neutral in politics, not to mention decisions negatively affect ordinary users with no part in the war.
